MUSKEGON, MI – A prisoner formerly held at Muskegon’s Earnest C. Brooks Correctional Facility has been charged with sexually groping a food-service worker at the prison.

Eric Montez Pickett, 25, was arraigned Friday, April 11, in Muskegon County 60th District Court on a charge of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct involving force or coercion. Usually that’s a maximum two-year high-court misdemeanor, but because Pickett is charged as a fourth-time habitual offender, his potential maximum rises to 15 years.

The incident is alleged to have happened Jan. 14 at the prison at 2500 S. Sheridan Rd.

According to Timothy Maat, chief assistant Muskegon County prosecutor, Pickett worked in the kitchen at Brooks. While the alleged victim was walking down the hallway, Pickett allegedly walked up behind her and put his hand on her genital area and ran it around her hips and buttocks.

Pickett is serving a sentence of four to 15 years for a 2010 armed robbery in Detroit. After the alleged incident at Brooks, he was transferred to the Oaks Correctional Facility in Manistee, where he’s lodged as a Level 4 close-security inmate.

Besides the armed robbery conviction, he also has convictions of attempted carrying a concealed weapon, commited in 2009, and breaking and entering a vehicle with damage, committed in 2007.

Pickett's probable-cause hearing in the sex case was scheduled for April 24.

John
S. Hausman covers courts, prisons, the environment and local government for
MLive Muskegon Chronicle. Email him at jhausman@mlive.com and follow
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